A Different Choice
by Gypsy Love
Summary: Manny, Craig, Emma. Season 3. Manny has the baby.
1. Chapter 1

Outside the school, the day heartbreakingly bright. Manny noticed how the sun hit the side of the school. She stood there, hugging herself. Emma stood in front of her. Craig had taken off.

"I don't know, Em," she said, her eyes shiny with tears, "I don't know if I can have an abortion,"

Emma's hard look cracked, and she tilted her head.

"Manny, you can do it. You can have this baby. My mom had me and she was younger than you. We'll help you even if your parents won't. And Craig seems to be…supportive,"

The tears spilled down her cheeks, and Manny wiped them away. Craig and Emma and Spike aside, she'd still have to tell her father. She didn't think she could do that.

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Craig sat in his room, refusing to come out for supper or for anything. He was making Joey worried. Joey stood outside the door, aware of how little he really knew about this kid. Before, when Julia was alive, Julia dealt with him. And he lived with his father. Now his parents were dead and he was here. Joey leaned his head on the door, worrying about drugs and alcohol and the effects of Albert's abuse, the effects of his parents' early deaths. He thought of Wheels, his friend from school. His parents had died and he remembered watching Wheels fall apart.

"Craig! Open the door!"

"Leave me alone,"

Joey sighed. He couldn't. He was responsible for him now.

"Craig, I mean it! Open this door, now!" Unaware that he had almost perfectly mimicked Albert on that fateful day that Craig had run away, Joey pounded his fist on the door causing Craig to tense his muscles and suck in his breath, feeling for an instant that he was back in his old room and Albert was pounding on the door.

"Shit," Craig mumbled under his breath, recognizing this flashback reaction that happened from time to time, making him feel like time was going backwards, making him feel crazy. He stood up and opened the door, not wanting Joey to continue to pound on it and make him remember.

"What is going on with you?" Joey said, relatively calm, and Craig closed his eyes, thinking of how his father would have grabbed his shirt or his wrists and shoved him back, and hit him…

"Nothing. I'm fine, really,"

Joey looked at him with doubt in his eyes but understood that whatever it was, Craig wasn't ready to tell him. He was just glad that he had finally opened the door.

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"I don't think Manny is going to have that abortion after all," Emma said to her mother, the smile in her eyes and voice unmistakable. Spike frowned.

"She's not?" she said softly, and thought of the hard road ahead for Manny if that was the choice she was making. Emma narrowed her eyes at her mother, sensing Spike's regret about having had a child so young.

"No, she's probably not. Isn't that good news?" Emma challenged, and Spike looked away.

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It was now or never, Manny thought. Tell him now. She watched her father eat, saw the lights in the kitchen gleam off of his short black hair, watched as he spoke to her mother. Tell him now, she thought at herself. Never seemed an easier choice. How could she tell him? What would he do? Disown her? Send her away? Hit her? All were possibilities. She put some food into her mouth and chewed it slowly. She couldn't possibly tell him. How could she?


	2. Chapter 2

"There's always adoption," Spike said, putting the vacuum cleaner away, and Emma nodded. Adoption didn't make her as happy. She wanted there to be a baby around, one that she could help with. It would be sad to see Manny give a baby away. Like it would have been sad if Spike had given her away.

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Craig stared at Joey. What would he say? Watched him bite into his hamburger, watched Angie wipe ketchup off her chin. Would he be mad? Probably. Would he ground him or something? Could you get grounded for that? And he didn't even know what Manny planned to do. His mind kind of shook at the thought of her getting an abortion. He wanted her to have this baby. He wanted a family that was for him.

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Manny lost her nerve. Listened to the sharp sounding accent that her parents spoke in, when they spoke English. They were speaking English now, and their accent kind of whipped their words into these different shapes. She couldn't tell him anything.

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At school the next morning Emma scanned the parking lot for Manny and finally saw her dressed in her powder blue jumpsuit. She ran over, her blond pigtails flapping behind her.

"Manny! Did you tell your dad? Are you still gonna keep it, have it, I mean?"

Manny looked up at Emma slowly, clutching all her books against her for protection. Her eyes were wet.

"Emma, I don't know. I don't know what to do. Either way, though, my dad is gonna kill me,"

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Craig slouched and walked slowly toward Manny and Emma. Emma looked a little wired, like she was drinking too many coffees. Manny looked sad and tired. He felt sort of like that. It was exhausting having this baby and it wasn't even born.

"Hi, Manny," he said, his voice quiet and shy. He was scared of her, scared of the power she had in this situation.

"Hi," she said, looking at him warily. He wanted to shake her, demand to know that she was having this baby and keeping it and then he could be whole, but he wouldn't. He'd control himself.

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Manny looked at the two of them, her best best friend and her obsessive love interest. The obsessive crazy part of her liked the idea of his DNA entwined with hers in this embryo that floated in her uterus. She could imagine a perfect child with dark hair like hers and funny hazel eyes like his. But then reality would crash in, her dad's contorted and angry face when he found out, and he would eventually. Her mother's tears and questions, 'why, Manuella, why?'

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Emma felt nervous, for some reason. Of the three she had the least at stake. She wasn't up on the chopping block like they were. Joey would lecture Craig if Manny had this baby. That was a given. Manny might get sent away, might get disowned, kicked out. Nothing would happen to her. Still, she wanted Manny to have and keep this baby really badly for some reason, like it would validate her own existence. Like she could finally see that she wasn't a mistake.


	3. Chapter 3

Days were going by, and then weeks. Manny didn't want to do anything. She didn't want to have an abortion, keep the baby, or give it away. For now she could do nothing. She threw up in the morning, sometimes the afternoon. She didn't think about it while she retched, her stomach cramping. Didn't think about why she was puking so much.

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Craig watched her every day. Asked her how it was going. Listened to her short replies. Had she had that abortion? Wouldn't she have told him? He watched her run down the hall to the bathroom, slam her outstretched hand into the door and run in. He watched her look so tired, so tired. He took those all as good signs.

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Emma watched, too. Watched her run from classes to puke in the bathroom stalls. Watched her lick her lips nervously and refuse to tell her parents.

"Manny, you have to tell them," Emma said.

"I can't," she whispered back.

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Sometimes in the morning she'd pluck her courage up, plan all day to just tell her parents. Even if they killed her it would have to be better than this limbo. But the afternoon would come and with it the overwhelming tiredness, and the dull sun, and she wondered how she ever thought she could tell her parents anything.

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Joey watched Craig. Watched him become quieter, moodier. Watched him snap at him and Ang, and that just wasn't like him.

"Craig," Joey said one night after dinner. Craig scraped the contents of his plate into the garbage disposal.

"What?"

"What's wrong?" Joey tried to get him to look at him but Craig wouldn't. His eyes were on his sneakers.

"Nothing,"

"You're lying,"

"It's nothing, Joey! God, okay! Nothing is wrong!"

He went upstairs, the risers shaking under the force. Joey and Angie watched him go with identical expressions of cautious surprise.

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Emma nibbled on the carrot sticks that were on the plate in the center of the kitchen table and watched Spike stir spaghetti sauce.

"Manny's still pregnant," she said, and Spike nodded and stirred.

"She hasn't told her parents yet," Emma said, crunching into another stick. Spike nodded.

"I don't think she's going to," Emma said, and Spike looked up.

"They'll figure it out pretty soon, Em,"


	4. Chapter 4

She couldn't believe the words had come out of her mouth. Sitting down to dinner, food steaming on their plates, soda glasses glistening in the light. She could see the shadow of her father's head on the wall. She'd told them she was pregnant.

"Manuela," her mother said, the tears in her voice already. Her father didn't speak. He pressed his lips together and looked at her but he didn't speak.

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The knock at the door was frantic. Not very loud but insistent. Joey looked up at it, and so did Angie. When he answered the door Manny was standing there.

"Manny?" he said, just a little puzzled. He usually didn't see Manny without Emma. Manny looked like she had been crying, her eyes red and puffy.

"Is Craig here?" she said.

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He took her to the garage. He looked at her puffy eyes and sad expression. He couldn't interpret it.

"Craig, I told them…" she said, the words little choked and strangled things.

"Told who what?" he said, backing up away from her.

"I told my parents I was pregnant,"

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He sat heavily on the couch. Closed his eyes in relief. Not so much that she told her parents but that she was still pregnant. He'd thought so, hoped so, but couldn't let himself fully believe it. She'd have the baby and they'd be a family. He wouldn't fuck this up.

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"They kicked me out, my dad called me a slut, they said I couldn't come back," she said, and started to cry. The tears looked thick, smudging her make-up. Craig watched her cry and then pulled her to him, hugged her.

"It's okay," he said, his voice soothing, "it'll be okay now,"

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She pulled away from him, the tears still streaming down her face. She scrunched up her face at him. Didn't he understand anything? Her parents kicked her out. They were ashamed of her. She'd let them down. How could things be okay?

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"Craig, no," she said, "I can't go back. I've ruined their lives, my life, your life-" She dissolved in tears again, covering her face with her hands. Craig pulled her hands away.

"Manny, no. You haven't ruined anything. We'll be okay, I promise. I promise,"

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The hitching sobs, but they were tapering off. She bit her lip and thought about her parents. As mad and disappointed as they were with her, she was with them. And maybe Craig was right, somehow. Maybe things would be okay.


	5. Chapter 5

Joey was looking at him with that concerned, sad look. It was his typical response to Craig telling him he had to talk to him about something.

"Uh, maybe you should sit down," Craig said, and Joey suppressed the urge to smile. So this was sitting down news. He obliged and sat on the couch.

Manny had opted to stay in the garage. She'd had enough of the telling of this particular tidbit today. She knew the damage it could do.

"Okay, uh, Manny's pregnant," Craig said, "and I'm the father,"

Joey's jaw dropped, his eyes widened. This was a child standing before him, a 15 year old child. He could close his eyes and see him as he looked when he first met Julia, a tall skinny kid with a quick smile. A father? He'd gotten someone pregnant? He blinked, speechless.

Craig peered at him anxiously. What would he do? What would he say? What lecture would come?

"Joey?"

"Um, Craig…she's pregnant? Are you sure?" Maybe it wasn't true. Maybe it was just a late period and they were jumping the gun. Maybe it wasn't true at all.

"It's true. She went to the doctor," There he went shattering all last straws and feeble hopes.

Joey licked his lips, not quite sure what to say. He was conscious of all the trouble Craig entailed. There was no way they could care for a child themselves, if that was the option they were choosing. There were options. He wondered if Craig was aware of them.

"So, well, what were you thinking of doing?" Joey said, glad that he was sitting. He felt almost dizzy.

"Keeping it," Craig answered without hesitation.

"Keeping it? You're 15. She's what? 14? 13?"

"She's 14, but she'll be 15 when it's born, and I'll be 16," Defensive, his eyes taking on that squinty, 'I'm upset' look that he'd become very used to over this past year.

"15 and 16. Craig, do you have any idea how really truly young that is? How are you going to support yourself, Manny, and a baby? Just how are you going to do this? You have years of high school left. Being in high school doesn't leave much time for the lucrative career,"

"We can do it," Defensive still. He thought he might be able to break through those defenses.

"Oh you can? Craig, there's adoption, there's abortion, there are other options. I think you're choosing the hardest one,"

"It's the best choice. We can't just, do those other things. Because this way it's like, you know I know you took me in and all and I'm grateful, I really am. But in a way I don't really belong here. Not really. I mean, my first family that I had? They're all dead. And this way I'll have a family that's for me again, you know? I'm not saying this to hurt you, it isn't that I don't love you guys or think of you as my family but it's different for me. I'm always the odd one out. I'm the one who was taken in. It's not that easy, you know? So this is the right thing to do,"

Joey swallowed, nodded his head. He knew it was tough for Craig, he'd had an idea of that. The whole abandonment issue that wasn't really mentioned because what could you do with it? His parents were dead. He hadn't been able to stay with his dad even when he was alive. He had been abandoned. It was just their history.


	6. Chapter 6

Joey stood up, the slight dizziness going away. He rubbed his hand over his bald head, feeling the stubble toward the back. He stared at this kid, his wife's son who had become, over this past year, his son. He saw the wide eyes and the curly hair, saw how very young he was. He remembered being that age and feeling older, feeling like he was 15 and that was practically an adult. Now, at 32, he knew how far from the truth that thought was. 15 was a dangerous age because 15 year olds thought they knew everything when it was really closer to nothing.

Joey paced a little, thinking of how kids, teenagers, everyone, had to be allowed to make their own mistakes and learn from those mistakes. But this was really a life changing, life consuming mistake. You couldn't send a baby back if you got sick of it, you couldn't give it up for adoption once you got to know it without your heart breaking. Joey blinked, looking at Craig. One way or the other he was going to get his heart broken in all of this.

"Craig, listen to me. I know it hasn't been easy for you. I know you feel, you probably feel like you don't really belong sometimes. To me, you are definitely a part of this family, as much as Angie is. I love you and consider you to be my son, you are my son. But look, I understand that Albert and Julia are gone, and that they both let you down and let you go before they died. But Craig, having a baby at 15 won't fix that. It won't make you feel differently toward them, or about the past. A baby won't take away the pain you feel. Does that make sense to you?"

Craig looked down, didn't say anything. Joey watched him anxiously. He hoped he could convince him to go with adoption or abortion and then he could get back to being a kid. If he had this baby and helped Manny raise it he'd be thrust into this early adulthood that worried him. He knew Craig was fragile. He knew that all the trauma and abuse had left him a little damaged, a little emotionally younger than other kids his age, but oddly older intellectually. Craig understood how ruthless the world could be. It was an odd juxtaposition and he just didn't know how his psyche would handle a child.

"No, Joey, you don't understand. I would finally have this family, a family that would be for me. And it will be better than my childhood was. This kid will have what I didn't have. I won't ever hit him or her, and I won't be as angry as my dad was. It'll be…it's gonna be great,"

Joey squeezed his eyes shut, the headache almost slamming into him. School, the band, friends, and a baby, and Manny? Craig was already having problems with anger. Joey didn't know if it was something passed down from Albert to him, a sort of temperament or if it was a result of being exposed to so much violence or both. After school he'd watch Craig slam down his books, run up the stairs, slam his door. When he'd ask what was wrong Craig would say he'd had a bad day, or "long day" as he usually put it. Days were longer with a baby. He couldn't control his anger now, what in God's name would he do when he had a baby?

"Craig, you don't know what it's going to be like. Babies are a lot of work. How are you going to handle that and go to school, and have a job? Where are you going to live? Have you thought of any of this? I know you want this family, I know. But you are 15. You need to grow up first before you can raise a child,"

And then the anger was there, it was burning in his eyes.

"You think I can't do it? Screw you, Joey. I can. I can handle a baby. I can have a family, and Manny's pregnant and we're _having _a family. Sorry. But it's great to know you think I'm such a friggin' screwed up _kid_ who can't handle anything. Thanks a lot, Joey. I'm glad you think so highly of me,"

He left, slamming the door so hard on his way out that it shook the frame of the house. Joey watched him go. Shook his head. He'd help him, if this was the path he was choosing. Of course he'd help. But he didn't want this to be the path.

It occurred to him that Craig had a sizable trust fund that could be accessible if Craig were to be emancipated. If he had a child and married Manny he could be emancipated and then he'd have access to the trust fund. Joey cocked his head as if listening to some distant sound. He didn't know if that would be such a good idea, either.


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